Environment

Dedicated to examining the application of simulation and optimization techniques to address questions about ecology, conservation, and natural resource management.

Our conservation-oriented research focuses primarily on examining how drivers of human behavior can elicit changes in the ecological processes and services at the landscape scale. Most of our work centers around either the potential consequences of cellulosic ethanol production in agricultural-dominated landscapes, or examining how predominately forested landscapes are affected under different economic scenarios. In addition to addressing research questions, our projects also strive to make current scientific concepts more accessible to non-scientists through the development of engaging and interactive computational tools and educational games.